Bob & Joan O., Alexandria, VAWe are writing to express our support for the great work being done by Dr. Hrayr Shahinian and his team at the Skull Base Institute.

When my wife found out that she had a large benign brain tumor (olfactory groove meningioma), we were scared to death of conventional brain surgery. That would have involved shaving her head, peeling back her scalp, and cutting a good-sized hole in the top of her skull to gain access to the brain cavity. Not exactly a pleasing prospect.

We were familiar with other minimally invasive techniques such as laparoscopy for ectopic pregnancies; arthroscopic knee surgery; correcting certain heart tachycardia through ablation via catheterization; and correction of certain sinus conditions with endoscopy. We hoped and prayed that someone had developed a similar advanced technique for olfactory groove meningioma.

We found Dr. Shahinian and the Skull Base Institute by doing an Internet search on "endoscopic surgery olfactory groove meningioma." The search yielded articles on the Skull Base Institute and we immediately contacted Dr. Shahinian.

We felt confident going to Dr. Shahinian after talking to him and questioning him in detail about his techniques. We were impressed by his openness, his honesty and his intelligence. We contacted other patients who had used Dr. Shahinian, and we placed a lot of weight on the outstanding worldwide reputation of Cedars-Sinai.

Everything worked out extremely well. Joan was fully recovered in about one-fourth the time of conventional surgery and suffered far less pain and trauma. As our nineteen-year-old son would say, the choice between SBI and conventional brain surgery is like asking someone if they want the big pile of money or the small pile of money.

We believe that 30 years from now, most conventional highly invasive brain surgery will have been supplanted by minimally invasive techniques similar to those developed by Dr. Shahinian. Soon, conventional brain surgery will be considered a barbaric relic of the 20th century. We wish that other surgeons would adopt his techniques and save the state hundreds of thousands of dollars in reduced hospital stays.